India's High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranay Verma.
Credit: X/@ihcdhaka
New Delhi/Bengaluru: India on Wednesday withdrew all the non-essential members of the staff of its high commission in the capital of Bangladesh in view of the continuing unrest in the neighbouring country.
New Delhi’s diplomatic and consular mission in Dhaka remained functional. The diplomats of India posted in Bangladesh also remained in the neighbouring country.
Two days after Sheikh Hasina resigned as the prime minister of Bangladesh and flew to India, a chartered aircraft of Air India brought back home the non-essential officials posted in New Delhi’s diplomatic and consular missions in Dhaka and other cities in the neighbouring country and their families.
The special flight, operated with an A321 neo aircraft of Air India, departed from Delhi and landed in Dhaka late on Tuesday. It returned with 199 adults and six infants on Wednesday, with most of the evacuees being the members of the non-essential staff of India’s missions in Bangladesh and their families.
“The High Commission of India in Dhaka continues to remain functional. Our diplomats and officials continue to be in Dhaka,” a source in New Delhi said.
Hasina often drew flak from her political opponents for running a government, which was excessively friendly to New Delhi. As the crackdown by police and other law-enforcement agencies on the students and youths agitating against reservations in government jobs triggered protests across Bangladesh, the radical forces infiltrated into the stir and tried to turn it against India, according to the officials, who have been monitoring the evolving situation in the neighbouring country from New Delhi.
Apart from the High Commission in Dhaka, India has Assistant High Commissions in Khulna, Sylhet, Rajshahi, and Chittagong in Bangladesh.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had on Tuesday made statements in both houses of Parliament of India on the situation in Bangladesh.
“It is our expectation that the host government will provide the required security protection for these establishments (India’s missions in Bangladesh). We look forward to their normal functioning once the situation stabilizes,” Jaishankar had told both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
The Indian Visa Application Centres in Bangladesh remained closed on Monday – a day after the clashes between the protesters and the law-enforcement personnel resulted in the death of nearly 100 people across Bangladesh.
“We are in close and continuous touch with the Indian community in Bangladesh through our diplomatic missions. There are an estimated 19,000 Indian nationals there, of which about 9,000 are students. The bulk of the students have already returned to India in July on the advice of the High Commission,” Jaishankar had said on Tuesday.
Air India sent the aircraft from Delhi to Dhaka at very short notice despite infrastructure challenges at the airport in the capital of Bangladesh.
IndiGo, according to sources, brought back more than 200 people from Dhaka to Kolkata on Tuesday. "IndiGo operated a special flight 6E 8503 from Dhaka to Kolkata on August 06, 2024. This flight was operated to bring back Indian nationals from Bangladesh", said the airline on Wednesday.